Businesses are increasing the pace of investment in AI systems to defend against the next generation of cyberattacks, a new study from the Capgemini Research Institute has found. Two thirds (69%) of organizations acknowledge that they will not be able to respond to critical threats without AI. With the number of end-user devices, networks, and user interfaces growing as a result of advances in the cloud, IoT, 5G and conversational interface technologies, organizations face an urgent need to continually ramp up and improve their cybersecurity. AI-enabled cybersecurity is now an imperative: Over half (56%) of executives say their cybersecurity analysts are overwhelmed by the vast array of data points they need to monitor to detect and prevent intrusion. Accordingly, almost half (48%) said that budgets for AI in cybersecurity will increase in FY2020 by nearly a third (29%).

Darktrace helped pave the way for using artificial intelligence to combat malicious hacking and enterprise security breaches. Now a new U.K. startup founded by an ex-Darktrace executive has raised some funding to take the use of AI in cybersecurity to the next level. Senseon, which has pioneered a new model that it calls "AI triangulation" -- simultaneously applying artificial intelligence algorithms to oversee, monitor and defend an organization's network appliances, endpoints and "investigator bots" covering multiple microservices -- has raised $6.4 million in seed funding. David Atkinson -- the startup's CEO and founder who had previously been the commercial director for Darktrace and before that helped pioneer new cybersecurity techniques as an operative at the U.K.'s Ministry of Defense -- said that Senseon will use the funding to continue to expand its business both in Europe and the U.S. The deal was co-led by MMC Ventures and Mark Weatherford, who is chief cybersecurity strategist at vArmour (which itself raised money in recent weeks) and previously Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Others in the round included Amadeus Capital Partners, Crane Venture Partners and CyLon, a security startup incubator in London.